


(Get Better) Day by Day

by SleeplessDays



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: AP Lit Trauma, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, College Acceptance/Rejection Stress, F/M, Fluff, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29776851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleeplessDays/pseuds/SleeplessDays
Summary: College apps in and the first seven semesters of high school done.Second-semester senior Rey is just doing her best to survive the end of high school. Contrary to popular belief, her workload did not become light just because college apps were in. She doesn't have the time or energy to do an entire group project by herself, so thank goodness that her partner seems to be competent. Ben Solo does the drama thing, so he should be an asset for the AP Lit performance project, not a hinderance. Except that it's so much harder to focus on delivering her lines when he keeps cracking jokes and looking at her like she's the damn sun.She's leaving for college in the fall. She's not catching feelings for him. She's not.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	(Get Better) Day by Day

_Congratulations! We are pleased to offer you admission to the University of California, Santa Cruz in the major of Proposed Computer Science._

Rey blinked at the screen in confusion. She’d been… accepted? Her gaze shot to the date. It was still February 22, 2021. She hadn’t missed an entire month. So why the hell was she getting a regular decision acceptance letter?

She had to pause Mamamoo’s “HIP.” Things were getting serious.

A quick panicked text to the group chat with Poe, Finn, and Kaydel reassured her that it wasn’t a mistake. No one else in the group had gotten either accepted or rejected, but Kaydel had seen something online about them sending out their first batch of admission decisions. 

She was in. Fuck. She should be feeling more, right? The sickening dread had mostly passed, but there was no sudden elation. A relief that she had at least one of her choices locked down, but little else. But regardless, one down, eleven to go. 

Rey was no fool. She knew that very few people who weren’t rom com protagonists got into schools like MIT just because they really, really wanted to.  
  


Rey had a total weighted GPA just under 4.4, a 4.0 academic GPA, and a weighted academic GPA nearing 4.44. Her SAT score was in the 1500s, and she had been taking honors and AP classes since they had opened to her. She took college classes at night, received tutoring every Tuesday, volunteered weekly, stuck with Girl Scouts from elementary to high school, and had been a member of her schools’ choirs since 6th grade. Rey was a great student.

But she went to a school with people who did more than her, who were smarter than her. Hell, she was pretty normal for her school. Maybe above average, but certainly not special. And colleges knew just how average she was when compared with her peers. 

MIT’s acceptance rate was 6.7%. Rey knew she wasn’t getting in. It’d be a miracle if she was even waitlisted. UC Berkeley and Brown with their 16.3% and 7.1% acceptance rates probably wouldn’t want her either. 

But she still had over a month until she would know what her options really were, and then another month after that before she had to pick where she would be spending the next four years. 

She just had to wait a little longer. Rey was great at waiting.

And until then, the apathy prevailed. She fell asleep with the nothingness–barely overpowering the dread that came from keeping up with school–pressing on her soul.

* * *

Fuck. Her phone informed her that it was 4am, so she had been asleep for 5 hours. 5 hours wasted when she still had an essay due at 8am and a physics worksheet due right before lunch. 

_Not again, damn it._

Rey stumbled out of bed and dropped into her desk chair. 4 hours to submit the essay and leave, she could do this. She’d done it before and she’d definitely do it again. Now, how do gender roles impact the play _Macbeth_? Fuck. Decent quotes–or quotations, as her teacher insisted–took so long to find. 

Three and a half hours later, Rey was shoving her binders into her bag with all her might. It didn’t matter that classes alternated days, she never had enough room to comfortably fit all her things in. 

45 minutes before school, however, was a rare luxury for her. Normally she only had 20 minutes to toss on her clothes and speed to school. Today, however, she could afford to actually plan her outfit–not that anyone at her school cared to do more than throw on a hoodie on a Monday morning–and then stop by Starbucks. Maybe she’d even eat an actual breakfast. Okay, no need to go crazy. She definitely wasn’t eating anything more substantial than a brownie until lunch. Maybe she’d buy some cookies during break.

She passed by the Tesla and ducked into the Audi. While a Tesla might not be uncommon in her town, they usually drew more attention when parked in the school parking lot. 

With the average house in her area nearing $3 million, the town was no stranger to money. Still, the Palpatines were considered one of the wealthiest families in town.

There was no chauffeur waiting to whisk her away or any chef with a french omelette ready for her at 7:00am on the dot. No one opened the front door or fetched water for her. The closest thing she had to staff was a cleaning and gardening service that came by once a week. 

Her family was wealthy enough that she didn’t need to worry about paying for college or budgeting herself. Rey could afford to impulsively buy a new shirt or pair of earrings whenever she pleased, but the guilt ate at her each time she spent excessive money.

And while her life was nothing like what the movies would have you believe, Rey was comfortable. A three story house and a large enough property for a pool, grass, and a few rows of grape vines. Three cars, a grand piano, and four TVs. Of course, none of those things were really _hers_ , but rather her family’s.

Her family, which only included the mother who worked all day and most of the night, the father who spent all his time in England, and the grandfather who’d had plans for her since he’d learned of Rey’s existence.

No, the Palpatine wealth couldn’t get rid of the way despair, fury, and apathy battled within her, but it was still pretty damn nice to have. 

* * *

“You are so fucked.” Poe managed to smirk with his eyes while he bit into his daily morning-break-cookie. He and Finn stood beside Rey and Kaydel, who were sitting on a bench with their papers and books balanced in their laps

“Shut the hell up, Poe. I am _trying_ to study.”

“It’s AP Phys. You haven’t studied until now. You’re fucked.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence. I’m just praying for a curve.”

“D’Acy never curves his tests more than a point,” Finn pointed out. “The smart kids always drag the test average up.”

  
Poe spoke back up. “That usually includes you, you know.” He laced his hand with Finn’s and started swinging their arms back and forth.

“Well, I sure don’t feel too fucking smart, Poe,” Rey shot back.

Kaydel looked up from her phone for the first time since sitting down. “You and Poe have got filthy mouths today.”

“I didn’t know you were such a prude, Kay. We’re not even swearing that much,” Poe argued.

“I’m _fucking_ stressed because of _fucking_ AP Phys, which I shouldn’t have _fucking_ taken because it’s my _fucking_ senior year, and I just want to _fucking_ sleep.” Rey growled.

“Okay, Rey’s swearing a lot,” Poe conceded. “But we all know that Rey’s only at like a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10.

The bell sounded across the school.

Rey slammed her binder shut. “Fuck. Fuckity fucking fuck. It’s okay, there’s still lunch left. That’ll have to be good enough. God, it’s not going to be enough. Maybe I can sneak a little more in Holdo?” 

“Nah, Holdo’s assigning a group project now that the essay’s done. Gotta love AP Lit, right? I hear it’s a performance project,” Kaydel informed her and the four started walking toward the English wing. 

  
Rey and Finn simultaneously groaned. 

“Why do English teachers always insist on those,” Finn whined.

Kaydel adopted her best impression of Holdo, and informed him “ _Macbeth_ is a play and is meant to be performed. You don’t just read sports stats, do you?”

“I do for AP Stats, but I wouldn’t risk informing Holdo” Rey added. 

Poe let out a gusty sigh on their behalf. “And this is the one moment where taking AP Lang instead of AP Lit pays off.”

“This is the _only_ moment where that class has even the slightest advantage.” Kaydel sniped back. 

“Lies, but we don’t have time to argue the point again. This is where I get off the train, so I’ll see you all at lunch.” Poe saluted them and disappeared into his classroom. 

“Fucking AP Lang kids,” Rey muttered. 

“Look on the bright side, Rey. You’ve got a free 7th, so you get to pass out right after your AP Physics test.”

“Yes, right after I fail it and gain a head full of gray hair.”

* * *

There was indeed a performance project for all of the AP Lit students. Holdo passed out the sheet with the assignment details as soon as everyone had turned in the hard copies of their essays and taken their seats. 

Rey did her best to listen to Holdo’s explanation of the rubric while running through the study guide she’d hidden under the assignment sheet. Pick a scene, memorize, do something Englishy, blah blah blah. Not important right now. Nodes, antinodes, and pipe resonators. Those are important. What do those do again?

She’d essentially blocked Holdo out until she started reading off names.

“Kaydel and Snap.”

Snap began to put away his things so that he could move next to Kaydel.

“Teedo and Ushos.”

Teedo ate a cracker from a bag he had under the table. Ushos looked less than thrilled.

“Jessika and Gwen.”

The relief on both of their faces was not subtle.

“Finn and Zorii.”

Zorii eyed Finn appraisingly and then gestured for him to move to her table once Holdo was done.

“Rose and Bazine.”

Rose’s scowl was damn near impressive in its intensity.

“Bollie and Taslin.”

Bollie shrugged at Taslin, who was sitting next to him.

“Thanisson and Kaplan.”

They nodded at each other and then turned back toward Holdo.  
  


“Hux and Mitaka.”

Hux seemed pleased, but Mitaka was shaking in his boots.

“Tallie and Ziff.”

They avoided eye contact, but looked indifferent. Rey couldn’t help but wonder why Holdo always made her go last.

“Ben and Rey.”

Ben Solo.

Rey didn’t know what to make of him, so she took stock of what she did know. His mom was Leia Organa and his father was Han Solo. Rich _and_ famous. What did that make him? She knew better than to make assumptions based off of his lineage (her grandfather was the formidable Sheev Palpatine, after all), but it was what came to mind first when she thought of Ben Solo. 

What else did she know? He was friends with the fiery Rose Tico, but he was pretty quiet in class. She knew he was a part of the drama program, though she hadn’t seen many of the school shows. She’d gone to a musical or two, though, when the choir director had pestered them for a month straight. She remembered him being a pretty excellent Prince Adam in _Beauty and the Beast_ the year before _._ He could either be very helpful or incredibly insufferable in a performance project. Although he may be neither with how quiet he seemed in class. His grades were probably pretty good, but there was no guarantee he would do his part. Rey really hoped he wouldn’t leave the entire writing portion of the assignment to her.

She hadn’t missed his extremely neutral expression when he’d heard her name, but he’d gathered his things without prompting and slipped into the seat next to her once Finn had moved over to Zorii.

What did that mean? Did he already hate her? Was he disappointed? Probably; many people were with assigned groups. Whatever. She would do her part, and she hoped he would too. He was way too big for her to carry him and all his weight to an A. 

“Here.” Ben slipped a scrap of paper in front of her. “Bsolo8536. Same ending as all the other school emails. And then my phone number below it. I’ll grab us laptops from the back.” 

He returned a minute later with two of the school-issued laptops that were in the back of every classroom. 

“You make the Google doc and share it with me, and I’ll get an online pdf of the text.”

His business-like tone was a little unexpected, but Rey appreciated that he wasn’t more focused on sneaking crackers like Teedo was. 

“Okay. Got a scene in mind for our performance?”  
  


“I’m not set on anything, but I’d love to lose my mind or kill someone.”

**Author's Note:**

> Are all my chapter titles going to be the song I'm feeling when I'm writing? You get your ass they are. The work title is from Mamamoo's "Wind Flower." Chapter 1 is from "Easy" by Wheein.


End file.
